Bin Laden's cave complex falls

The Tora Bora base of Osama bin Laden has been reportedly been captured by anti-Taliban forces.

A spokesman for the Northern Alliance has claimed control of most of the caves in the eastern Afghanistan complex.

No sightings of bin Laden have been reported.

Northern Alliance spokesman Mohammed Habeel says troops led by commander Hazrat Ali won control during intensive fighting overnight.

Several hundred members of al-Qaida network are thought to have been based at the complex.

Mr Habeel said some Arabs, including women, had been captured, along with weapons and vehicles.

He added: "Osama was not in Tora Bora during the past days of fighting and if he had been, he has probably slipped into Pakistan."

French aid group Medicins sans Frontiers (MSF) reports more than 80 Afghan civilians have been killed and 50 wounded in US air strikes around Tora Bora in recent days.

The Pentagon insists that all its strikes in the Tora Bora region have successfully hit their designated targets.